Saudi police arrest woman shown wearing miniskirt in online video
Police in Saudi Arabia arrested a woman Tuesday who appeared in a video posted online in which she wears a miniskirt and crop top, exposing her legs and midriff in violation of the country’s strict dress code for women.
The video of the woman, identified online only as Khulood, prompted a debate on social media soon after it was uploaded to Snapchat over the weekend. It was rapidly shared across the internet by people who supported her display and — perhaps more interesting — by those who opposed it, resulting in an official investigation.
Police in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, turned her over to the public prosecutor’s office, the kingdom’s state-run Alekhbariya television reported on its Twitter feed, using an Arabic hashtag that translates to, “We demand a trial for the model Khulood.”
In the short clip, filmed mostly from behind, the woman is shown walking through the ruins of an ancient fort in Ushaiager, a town in Najd province. Najd is the birthplace of the country’s ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement.
In response to calls for the woman’s arrest, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice wrote on Twitter on Monday that it had “intercepted a clip of a girl in inappropriate clothing” and had opened an investigation with the “relevant authorities.”
Saudi law imposes stringent rules on women’s appearance and behavior. Saudi women are required to wear a black garment, called an abaya, that covers everything but the face, feet and hands. They must also keep their heads covered, and they are not permitted to drive, or to socialize with men who are not related to them.
An unnamed spokesman for Riyadh police cited by the Saudi online news site Sabq said the woman had told police that she visited the site in Ushaiager with her legal guardian — a male relative, usually a father or husband, but sometimes a brother or son, who has the legal authority to control a woman’s movements — and that the video had been put online without her knowledge.
The video, and the debate on social media that followed, exposed a rift below the country’s tightly policed surface.
Some people on Twitter called the woman brave and accused Saudi Arabia of hypocrisy for often celebrating the beauty of foreign women while denigrating that of its own citizens.
One, Fatima al-Issa, wrote as she shared the clip: “If she were a foreigner, they would sing about the beauty of her waist and the enchantment of her eyes. But because she is Saudi they are calling for her arrest.”
Some supporters of the woman in the video posted images of Ivanka and Melania Trump, who during President Donald Trump’s state visit to Saudi Arabia in May wore dresses that exposed their legs and did not cover their heads.
One tweet that was widely shared included an image of Ivanka Trump’s face digitally placed on the body of the woman in the video, with the words, “Enough already, the situation has been solved.”